Apponequet lacrosse holds off Canton for 19-14 win

LAKEVILLE — It was a scare, nothing more, but it did not sit well with the Lady Lakers.

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By Jon Haglof

southcoasttoday.com

By Jon Haglof

Posted Apr. 18, 2013 at 10:56 AM

By Jon Haglof
Posted Apr. 18, 2013 at 10:56 AM

» Social News

LAKEVILLE — It was a scare, nothing more, but it did not sit well with the Lady Lakers.

On Monday, the Apponequet girls' lacrosse team roared out to a big lead over visiting Canton, but what stood as a 13-5 lead at the halftime break, withered in the face of an eight-goal run for Canton in the second half. The Bulldogs closed the gap to just three goals, 17-14, with just a few minutes to play, but just as quick as they seemingly went to sleep, the Lady Lakers woke up and finished the game with a pair of goals from Allie Noyes and Nicole Dion to lock down a 19-14 win.

Lesson learned, said Apponequet head coach Janet Tavares.

"Honestly, I think being up 13-5 at the half, we got a little complacent, and I think we learned a good lesson from that," Tavares said after a lengthy post-game chat with her players.

"I think the game got a little out of control there in the second half, and we needed to settle down and play our game. And it took us a little while to do that, but we did."

Cara Storms led the way with six goals and an assist, but was dealt a red card and ejected from the game midway through the second half after a physical, feisty exchange out in front of the Canton goal.

In addition to being a player down for the remainder of the game, the ejection led to a big swing in momentum, and within minutes, Apponequet's 17-6 lead was cut to 17-12 with under 10 minutes to play. Canton scored two more to pull with three, 17-14, but after a quick time out, Dion snapped the long scoreless stretch for Apponequet for 18-14. Canton did not score again, and Noyes added one more for the 19-14 final.

"We finally relaxed a little bit and got focused at the end there. We made the plays we needed and put it away with a couple of goals," Tavares said.

Dion finished with four goals and two assists, and Noyes had two and two. Paige Campbell had four goals and three assists, and Liz Loranger, who's coming off a knee injury which caused her to miss the entire field hockey and basketball seasons, had three goals and two assists. "Lizzie Loranger, back from the injury, is playing great and is one of our top scorers, and Cara Storms is another one of our top scorers, and she's been doing great," Tavares said. "And from there it's been kind of spread out, here and there, with Paige, Nicole and Allie all scoring and helping out."